A Twist of Fate
by EHSparkwoman
Summary: My take on what Knock Out ended up doing after the events of Predacons Rising.


EHSparkwoman: Does anyone want to do this disclaimer?

Arcee: EHSparkwoman doesn't own Transformers; it belongs to whoever created it.

EHSparkwoman: Because if I did I'm sure Knock Out would have become an Autobot much sooner!

 **AN: This was done for a contest on DA, for a group called The Buffer Army. The contest stated we had to say what Knocks was up to after the events of Predacons Rising. This was written quite a while ago as well… and I forgot to post it. I'll rectify that now.**

Knock Out was beginning to wish that he hadn't rushed into becoming an Autobot. Why, you might ask? If he'd have known it would have meant that he'd have to prove himself; he wouldn't have hit Starscream over the head with the Immobiliser.

"Come on Knock Out! We aren't on a break yet! Get moving!" Bulkhead shouted. _The things I have to do…_

"Alright, I'm coming!" Knock Out shouted back, before adding quietly to himself. "Don't get your under-armour in a twist…" Knock Out reluctantly trudged off to see what they expected him to do now. He wasn't expecting to find Bumblebee and a bunch of Vehicons stood around a pile of pipes.

"You need to help us move these, they need two bots to carry them; and there are only 7 of us." Bumblebee explained.

"Where is Bulkhead? Surely he'd be a better candidate for this job?" Knock Out asked grumpily, those pipes looked heavy.

"Bulkhead is working on something else." Bumblebee didn't like working with Knock Out, but he didn't want to defy Ultra Magnus' orders. _You'll have to do, if you don't whine on like a sparkling!_ Bumblebee added silently. He then picked up the end of one of the pipes. A Vehicon picked up the other, and both of them walked off towards wherever they were being taken; no one had told Knock Out. Another two pairs of Vehicons picked up two of the pipes, leaving one Vehicon still stood there.

"We need to get moving, they'll be wondering where we are if we don't move this soon." The Vehicon tried to urge Knock Out to cooperate.

"Fine, since I don't have a choice in the matter!" Knock Out moved to one end of the pipe and lifted it up. It felt like it was covered in something slimy or oily, Knock Out couldn't tell which; but knew he didn't like it. The Vehicon had lifted the other end up and started to walk off. The end of the pipe that Knock Out was holding fell to the ground.

"Hey Knock Out, do keep up! If I start moving, you should too; or this is going to take a while!"

"Aren't you supposed to address me as 'sir'? I am your superior!"

"Unless you aren't actually an Autobot, I don't. The only one I have to address as 'sir' is Ultra Magnus; and that's only because he prefers it." _I knew the Autobots were all for fair rights and stuff; but the Vehicons being treated like the rest of us? I'm going to just have to get on with it; don't want them to think that I'm not on their side…_

"In that case, if you are about to walk off, give me a warning!" Knock Out grumpily picked his end of the pipe up; this muck was going to mess up his paint job! The Vehicon picked his end up and then told him they were going to move off. Both of them walked off towards wherever these pipes were needed; they still hadn't told Knock Out! As such he let the Vehicon lead him, towards somewhere else on the construction site. When they'd reached it and put the pipe down, the Vehicon went off to talk to the others; leaving Knock Out and Bumblebee to walk together on the way back. Knock Out didn't particularly want to talk to that bug; and he was sure Bumblebee wouldn't want to talk to him either, so he listened in to what the Vehicons were saying.

"How'd you handle being stuck with the drama queen?" One of them asked. Knock Out recoiled; he didn't think he was that bad. _I thought Starscream was the drama queen, not me!_

"He didn't seem to like the feel of these pipes; must be too slimy for him." Knock Out thought this must have been the Vehicon he worked with, but they all sounded and looked the same, so he couldn't tell.

"He'd just be worried they'd damage his paint job; if we whined about the tiniest bit of muck like he does, we'd never get anything done!" The Vehicons started to laugh at that, pretending to flinch at the muck around the construction site. _I thought Vehicons weren't supposed to bad mouth us…_ Knock Out thought while walking back.

A while later…

After he had finished shifting all those pipes around, Knock Out was sure that they'd believe his plea. He hadn't tried to attack Bumblebee; even though it was _annoying_ how Bumblebee didn't have any muck on him, yet his arms were covered in it. It seemed that one of the Vehicons, or maybe the Autobots knew about his vanity,who knew? Had mentioned that he didn't like getting his paint job messed up. Which is why he was now stuck cleaning something vile out of, and off of, some more construction materials. _How do I get myself into these things…_ he thought as more of whatever that slimy oily stuff was, ended up on him.

"You think this is bad?" Bulkhead noticed Knock Out's expression. Knock Out turned away, not wanting to look at Bulkhead.

"You should have seen some of the gunge we had to go through to sneak into Decepticon bases! This stuff is relatively clean compared to that!"

"How come I'm the one dealing with this then, if this doesn't bother you?" Knock Out shouted at Bulkhead.

"Because you apparently can't stand getting covered in muck. Which I can now see is true." Bulkhead happily answered. _Miko was right; he is ridiculously vain!_ While Bulkhead was busy thinking about his friend on Earth, Knock Out was busy thinking about what exactly had got him into this mess in the first place.

"Hey, Knock Out! You listening?" Bulkhead asked. Knock Out didn't appear to hear him, and was too caught up in whatever it was he was daydreaming about to answer Bulkhead. Bulkhead then shrugged and figured that maybe all that shifting pipes around tired him out. _Maybe if I call his name once more, he'll hear me…_

"Knock Out!"

" _Knock Out; fetch me a sample of CNA." Shockwave asked him. Shockwave and Ratchet were busy working in the lab; trying to fix the Synthetic Energon sample. Knock Out reluctantly walked off towards one of the storage cabinets._

" _Knock Out bring this, Knock Out get that…" He trailed off, growling at being stuck as an errand mech._

" _Apparently fetching is all I'm good for lately. Wasn't all that long ago I used to run this lab. Now I'm everyone's gopher!" He grouchily carried a volume of CNA back to Shockwave._

 _ **That's right. The Decepticons treated me worse than scrap metal! Like I wasn't worth as much as them; just because I chose a ground based alt. mode! Even though Shockwave had one, and was given all the important jobs! Not surprising really that I decided to join the Autobots…**_

 _The Autobots were all gathered on the bridge of the Nemesis, looking out onto a newly restored Cybertron. Completely unaware that there was someone else they'd probably have preferred wasn't there, was also standing admiring the view._

" _Ah, such luster…" Knock Out trailed off. The Autobots all looked around at him, shocked that he had the balls to be standing beside them as calmly as that._

" _What? I'm joining the winning team." Knock Out told them._

 _ **I didn't attack the Autobots then, even though I could have; quite easily! And what do I get for it? Whacked over the head by that female fleshy, and thrown in the brig by the Autobots. And the first mech I see come to get me out? Starscream. Ground-based vehicle mode hating Starscream. He had this brilliant plan to get at the Autobots…**_

" _Ah, Scream won't use it, he needs us if he's going to have any chance of surviving Unicron." Bulkhead sounded very sure of himself._

" _You misunderstand. I do not intend to use this warship for battle; but for getting as far as possible from this doomed planet." Starscream answered him; still waving the Immobiliser around._

" _Earth would be nice, now that Unicron no longer seems to be calling it home…"_

" _Shut up you!" Starscream told Knock Out._

 _ **If only Starscream hadn't been so rude; I wouldn't have had to do this…**_

 _Starscream and Bumblebee both had their hands on the Immobiliser; each just as eager to get it off the other._

" _I'll silence you permanently!" Starscream growled at Bumblebee, not wanting to lose this fight. A phantom hand then reached through Starscream's stomach and grabbed the Immobiliser. Starscream looked around to see who had grabbed it. Before Starscream could react, Knock Out whacked Starscream over the head with it, shattering the weapon and knocking him out. The Autobots all stared at him in shock, unable to believe what just happened._

" _Now will you believe that I am joining the winning team?" He asked them smugly._

 _ **When I looked at their faces, it seemed like they didn't believe me…**_

" _Why'd you do it, Knock Out? Why'd you turn against Starscream?" Arcee sounded confused._

" _Even if I had helped him seize this ship, he would probably just fire me out of the first airlock." Knock Out paused, before continuing._

" _Oh. And he's rude."_

 _ **There must have been more reason to it than that! I can't have just joined the Autobots because of Starscream… could I?**_

"Cybertron to Knock Out!" Knock Out was snapped out of his reverie by the sound of Bulkhead shouting at him.

"That pipe isn't going to clean itself and you've been…" Bulkhead trailed off, hearing his com going off. Knock Out listened in, in hope of finding a way out of doing this grunt work.

"What is it Arcee?" Knock Out didn't hear her reply but Bulkhead then suggested,

"Why don't we let Ratchet have a look at him? See if he can fix him up." Arcee obviously answered that this was a good idea; as Bulkhead then stopped talking into his com link.

"What was all that about?" Knock Out asked.

"Arcee was scouting the remains of Darkmount, and she found an injured mech there."

"Couldn't I help fix him?" _Instead of yesterday's model?_ Knock Out added in his head.

"No. You are going to help with construction. That is what Ultra Magnus has assigned you to." Bulkhead told him, clearly not taking any nonsense. Knock Out didn't look pleased, but got back on with his work; so they didn't give him an even messier job!

Later on…

Knock Out was now completely covered in… He'd rather not think about what! He wished the Autobots hadn't made him clean all of that stuff; he was covered in muck, and it would take ages to get clean. Bulkhead, meanwhile, had just received another com.

"What is it Ratchet?" Bulkhead paused.

"What do you mean, you don't know how to repair him any further?" Bulkhead sounded shocked. He'd paused again, listening to what the medic had to say.

"You need his help? Oh, I see. Because he has dealt with this kind of problem before." Bulkhead paused again and let Ratchet tell him a few other things.

"All right, I'll get him." Bulkhead then ended the com call.

"Knock Out, you are required to help Ratchet repair the mech we found at Darkmount. You have better knowledge of his frame type, and so will be helpful in repairing him." Knock Out let this information sink in, before answering him.

"As long as I can get cleaned up first; I don't think that Ratchet would appreciate, whatever this is, being put into the mech's open wounds." Knock Out gestured at the muck all over his body, wincing at the fact he was covered in it.

"I think Ratchet would probably agree with you there. Go on then, but don't keep Ratchet waiting too long." Bulkhead waved him off. _Finally! I can get rid of this oily-grimy whatever it is!_ Knock Out walked off towards the main facilities, where the wash racks and the med bay were.

A short while later…

"Who is it I'll be helping with?" Knock Out didn't like Ratchet much, and he assumed the feeling was mutual.

"He looks like a Predacon beat him up! Or Megatron, that wouldn't be unusual!" Knock Out walked towards the door and heard the groaning and grumbling of the mech; he was clearly in pain. _That sounds… scarily familiar…_ Knock Out thought to himself before going around the door and freezing at who was sprawled out on the med-berth, waiting to be repaired.

"Have you found the mech in question, Doctor?" The mech asked, wriggling about a little.

"Don't! You'll only make the cuts open up again. I know you are trying to scratch your back!" The mech groaned at being caught.

"The sealant only makes them itchy!" The mech whined.

"It also makes them heal faster, so stop complaining!" Ratchet then turned back to Knock Out; who was still standing as still as a statue.

"I need you to help me fix his wings; I haven't done that sort of thing in quite a while and I'd rather not make any mistakes."

"Right then, I'd best get started." The mech on the berth froze; he knew that voice. Knock Out walked over beside the mech and began trying to tweak a few things that weren't quite right with Ratchet's fixes. The mech hissed in response; he was quite vocal when trying to deal with his pain.

"What kind of trouble did you get into this time?" Knock Out asked the mech. The mech growled.

"I was almost ripped to pieces by Predaking and his moronic Predacons, thanks to you!" The mech sounded very annoyed.

"I don't see how this is my fault, Starscream."

"You whacked me over the head with the Immobiliser! If you had stuck to my plan, none of this would have happened! And you wouldn't be stuck as an Autobot slave!" Starscream screeched angrily at Knock Out.

"Only, I'm not an Autobot slave; I'm a free mech Starscream, which is a lot more than you will be when you are all healed!" Knock Out answered smugly. Starscream growled in response, knowing that Knock Out was right; he'd be a prisoner when all was said and done. He was the second in command of the now disbanded Decepticons. But one thing was bothering him…

"Why are you not a slave Knock Out? You are a Decepticon like me." Starscream voiced his question before he could stop himself. Knock Out paused for a moment, to get somewhere he could see Starscream's expression.

"Because, Herr Commandant, I joined the winning team." Knock Out then pointed at Ratchet, more specifically, at his Autobot insignia. Starscream was shocked, unable to speak for once. Knock Out got on fixing his and Ratchet's patient, secretly hoping that this would be enough for the Autobots to finally accept him. After all, red looked better on him than purple anyway.

 **AN: That was an unusual thing for me to do… I actually kept all of the characters in character for once! I'll leave the deciding whether or not he convinced them up to you guys! In the flashback bit in the middle, the bold text is Knock Out's thoughts about what went on. Well done to anyone who gets the Robots in Disguise (2001) reference. Hope you enjoyed!**


End file.
